Skip to main content

Special Use Domain Name 'ipv4only.arpa'
draft-cheshire-sudn-ipv4only-dot-arpa-14

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 8880.
Expired & archived
Authors Stuart Cheshire , David Schinazi
Last updated 2019-05-07 (Latest revision 2018-11-03)
RFC stream (None)
Formats
Reviews
Additional resources
Stream Stream state (No stream defined)
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
RFC Editor Note (None)
IESG IESG state Became RFC 8880 (Proposed Standard)
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD (None)
Send notices to (None)
draft-cheshire-sudn-ipv4only-dot-arpa-14
Network Working Group                                        S. Cheshire
Internet-Draft                                                Apple Inc.
Updates: 7050 (if approved)                                  D. Schinazi
Intended status: Standards Track                              Google LLC
Expires: May 8, 2019                                    November 4, 2018

                Special Use Domain Name 'ipv4only.arpa'
                draft-cheshire-sudn-ipv4only-dot-arpa-14

Abstract

   The specification for how a client discovers its local network's
   NAT64 prefix [RFC7050] defines the special name 'ipv4only.arpa' for
   this purpose, but in its Domain Name Reservation Considerations
   section that specification indicates that the name actually has no
   particularly special properties would require special handling, and
   does not request IANA to record the name in the Special-Use Domain
   Names registry.

   Consequently, despite the well articulated special purpose of the
   name, 'ipv4only.arpa' was not recorded in the Special-Use Domain
   Names registry as a name with special properties.

   As a result of this omission, in cases where software needs to give
   this name special treatment in order for it to work correctly, there
   was no clear mandate authorizing software authors to implement that
   special treatment.  Software implementers were left with the choice
   between not implementing the special behavior necessary for the name
   queries to work correctly, or implementing the special behavior and
   being accused of being noncompliant with some RFC.

   This document describes the special treatment required, formally
   declares the special properties of the name, and adds similar
   declarations for the corresponding reverse mapping names.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                  [Page 1]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 8, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

1.  Introduction

   The specification for how a client discovers its local network's
   NAT64 prefix [RFC7050] defines the special name 'ipv4only.arpa' for
   this purpose, but in its Domain Name Reservation Considerations
   section that specification indicates that the name actually has no
   particularly special properties would require special handling, and
   does not request IANA to record the name in the Special-Use Domain
   Names registry [SUDN].

   Consequently, despite the well articulated special purpose of the
   name, 'ipv4only.arpa' was not recorded in the Special-Use Domain
   Names registry [SUDN] as a name with special properties.

   This omission was discussed in the Special-Use Domain Names Problem
   Statement [RFC8244].

   As a result of this omission, in cases where software needs to give
   this name special treatment in order for it to work correctly, there
   was no clear mandate authorizing software authors to implement that
   special treatment.  Software implementers were left with the choice
   between not implementing the special behavior necessary for the name
   queries to work correctly, or implementing the special behavior and
   being accused of being noncompliant with some RFC.

   This document describes the special treatment required, formally
   declares the special properties of the name, and adds similar
   declarations for the corresponding reverse mapping names.

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                  [Page 2]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

2.  Conventions and Terminology Used in this Section

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY",
   and "OPTIONAL" in this section are to be interpreted as described
   in "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels",
   when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here
   [RFC2119] [RFC8174].

3.  Specialness of 'ipv4only.arpa'

   The hostname 'ipv4only.arpa' is peculiar in that it was never
   intended to be treated like a normal hostname.

   A typical client never looks up the IPv4 address records for
   'ipv4only.arpa', because it is already known, by specification
   [RFC7050], to have exactly two IPv4 address records, 192.0.0.170 and
   192.0.0.171.  No client ever has to look up the name in order to
   learn those two addresses.

   In contrast, clients often look up the IPv6 AAAA address records for
   'ipv4only.arpa', which is contrary to general DNS expectations, given
   that it is already known, by specification [RFC7050], that
   'ipv4only.arpa' is an IPv4-only name, which has no IPv6 AAAA address
   records.  And yet, clients expect to receive, and do in fact receive,
   positive answers for these IPv6 AAAA address records that apparently
   should not exist.

   This is clearly not a typical DNS name.  In normal operation, clients
   never query for the two records that do in fact exist; instead
   clients query for records that are known to not exist, and then get
   positive answers to those abnormal queries.  Clients are using DNS to
   perform queries for this name, but they are certainly not using DNS
   to learn legitimate answers from the name's legitimate authoritative
   server.  Instead, the DNS protocol has, in effect, been co-opted as
   an impromptu client-to-middlebox communication protocol, to
   communicate with the NAT64/DNS64 [RFC6146] [RFC6147] gateway, if
   present, and request that it disclose the prefix it is using for IPv6
   address synthesis.

   This use of specially-crafted DNS queries as an impromptu client-to-
   middlebox communication protocol has a number of specific
   consequences, outlined below, which client software needs to take
   into account if the queries are to produce the desired results,
   particularly when used on a multi-homed host, or when a VPN tunnel is
   in use.  The name 'ipv4only.arpa' is most definitely a special name,
   and needs to be listed in IANA's registry along with other DNS names
   that have special uses [SUDN].

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                  [Page 3]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

4.  Consequences of 'ipv4only.arpa' not being declared special

   As a result of the original specification [RFC7050] not formally
   declaring 'ipv4only.arpa' to have special properties, there was no
   clear mandate for DNS software to treat this name specially.  In
   particular, this lack of mandate for special treatment is relevant
   (a) to the name resolution APIs and libraries on client devices, and
   (b) to DNS64 [RFC6147] implementations.  These two aspects are
   discussed in more detail below.

4.1.  Consequences for Name Resolution APIs and Libraries

   A serious problem can occur with NAT64/DNS64 when a device is
   configured to use a recursive resolver other than the one it learned
   from the network.

   Typically a device joining a NAT64 network will learn the recursive
   resolver recommended for that network either via IPv6 Router
   Advertisement Options for DNS Configuration [RFC8106] or via DNS
   Configuration options for DHCPv6 [RFC3646].  On a NAT64 network it is
   essential that the client use the DNS64 recursive resolver
   recommended for that network, since only that recursive resolver can
   be relied upon to know the appropriate prefix(es) to use for
   synthesizing IPv6 addresses that will be acceptable to the NAT64
   gateway.

   However, it is becoming increasingly common for users to manually
   override their default DNS configuration because they wish to use
   some other public recursive resolver on the Internet, which may offer
   better speed, better reliability, or better privacy than the local
   network's default recursive resolver.  At the time of writing,
   examples of widely known public recursive resolver services include
   1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8, and 9.9.9.9.

   Another common scenario is the use of corporate VPN client software.
   The local network's recursive resolver will typically be unable to
   provide answers for the company's private internal host names, so VPN
   client software overrides the local network's default configuration,
   to divert some or all DNS requests to the company's own private
   internal recursive resolver, reached through the VPN tunnel.  As with
   the case described above of public recursive resolver services, the
   company's private internal recursive resolver cannot be expected to
   be able to synthesize IPv6 addresses correctly for use with the local
   network's NAT64 gateway, because the company's private internal
   recursive resolver is unlikely to be aware of the NAT64 prefix in use
   on the NAT64 network to which the client device is currently
   attached.  It is clear that a single recursive resolver cannot meet
   both needs.  The local network's recursive resolver cannot give

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                  [Page 4]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

   answers for some company's private internal host names, and some
   company's private internal recursive resolver cannot give correctly
   synthesized IPv6 addresses suitable for the local network's NAT64
   gateway.

   The conflict here arises because DNS is being used for two unrelated
   purposes.  The first purpose is retrieving data from a (nominally)
   global database -- generally retrieving the IP address(es) associated
   with a hostname.  The second purpose is using the DNS protocol as a
   middlebox communication protocol, to interrogate the local network
   infrastructure to discover the IPv6 prefix(es) in use by the local
   NAT64 gateway for address synthesis.

4.2.  Consequences for DNS64 Implementations

   As a result of there being no mandate for special treatment, queries
   for 'ipv4only.arpa' had to be handled normally, resulting in DNS64
   gateways performing unnecessary IPv6 address record queries (DNS
   qtype "AAAA", always returning negative responses) and IPv4 address
   record queries (DNS qtype "A", always returning the same positive
   responses) to the authoritative 'arpa' name servers.

   Having DNS64 gateways around the world issue these queries generated
   additional load on the authoritative 'arpa' name servers, which was
   redundant when the name 'ipv4only.arpa' is defined, by Internet
   Standard, to have exactly two IPv4 address records, 192.0.0.170 and
   192.0.0.171, and no other IPv4 or IPv6 address records.

   Also, at times, for reasons that remain unclear, the authoritative
   'arpa' name servers have been observed to be slow or unresponsive.
   The failures of these 'ipv4only.arpa' queries result in unnecessary
   failures of the DNS64 gateways and of the client devices that depend
   on them for DNS64 [RFC6147] address synthesis.

   Even when the authoritative 'arpa' name servers are operating
   correctly, having to perform an unnecessary query to obtain an answer
   that is already known in advance can add precious milliseconds of
   delay, affecting user experience on the client devices waiting for
   those synthesized replies.

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                  [Page 5]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

5.  Remedies

   This document leverages operational experience to update the Domain
   Name Reservation Considerations [RFC6761] section of the earlier
   specification [RFC7050] with one that more accurately lists the
   actual special properties of the name 'ipv4only.arpa', so that
   software can legitimately implement the correct behavior necessary
   for better performance, better reliability, and correct operation.

   These changes affect two bodies of software, (a) the name resolution
   APIs and libraries on client devices, and (b) DNS64 implementations.

   The new special rules specified in this document for name resolution
   APIs and libraries state how they should select which recursive
   resolver to query to learn the IPv6 address synthesis prefix in use
   on a particular physical or virtual interface.  Specifically: When
   querying for the name 'ipv4only.arpa', name resolution APIs and
   libraries should use the recursive resolver recommended by the
   network for the interface in question, rather than a recursive
   resolver configured manually, a recursive resolver configured by VPN
   software, or a full-service recursive resolver running on the local
   host.

   The new special rules specified in this document for DNS64
   implementations recommend that they avoid performing run-time network
   queries for values that are known to be fixed by specification.

   A useful property of the way NAT64 Prefix Discovery [RFC7050] was
   originally specified was that it allowed for incremental deployment.
   Even if existing DNS64 gateways, that were unaware of the special
   'ipv4only.arpa' name, were already deployed, once IANA created the
   appropriate 'ipv4only.arpa' records, clients could begin to use the
   new facility immediately.  Clients could send their special queries
   for 'ipv4only.arpa' to an ipv4only-unaware DNS64 gateway, and (after
   a query to IANA's servers) the DNS64 gateway would then generate the
   correct synthesized response.

   While this was a useful transition strategy to enable rapid adoption,
   it is not the ideal end situation.  For better performance, better
   reliability, and lower load in IANA's servers, it is preferable for
   DNS64 gateways to be aware of the special 'ipv4only.arpa' name so
   that they can avoid issuing unnecessary queries.  Network operators
   who wish to provide reliable, high performance service to their
   customers are strongly motivated to prefer DNS64 gateways that
   recognize the special 'ipv4only.arpa' name and apply the appropriate
   optimizations.

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                  [Page 6]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

6.  Security Considerations

   One of the known concerns with DNS64 is that it conflicts with
   DNSSEC.  If DNSSEC is used to assert cryptographically that a name
   has no IPv6 AAAA records, then this interferes with using DNS64
   address synthesis to assert that those nonexistent IPv6 AAAA records
   do exist.

   Section 3 of the DNS64 specification [RFC6147] discusses this:

      ... DNS64 receives a query with the DO bit set and
      the CD bit set. In this case, the DNS64 is supposed
      to pass on all the data it gets to the query initiator.
      This case will not work with DNS64, unless the
      validating resolver is prepared to do DNS64 itself.

   The NAT64 Prefix Discovery specification [RFC7050] provides the
   mechanism for the query initiator to learn the NAT64 prefix so that
   it can do its own validation and DNS64 synthesis as described above.
   With this mechanism the client can (i) interrogate the local NAT64/
   DNS64 gateway with an 'ipv4only.arpa' query to learn the IPv6 address
   synthesis prefix, (ii) query for the (signed) IPv4 address records
   itself, and validate the response, and then (iii) perform its own
   IPv6 address synthesis locally, combining the IPv6 address synthesis
   prefix learned from the local NAT64/DNS64 gateway with the validated
   DNSSEC-signed data learned from the global Domain Name System.

   It is conceivable that over time, if DNSSEC adoption continues to
   grow, the majority of clients could move to this validate-and-
   synthesize-locally model, which reduces the DNS64 machinery to the
   vestigial role of simply responding to the 'ipv4only.arpa' query to
   report the local IPv6 address synthesis prefix.  In no case does the
   client care what answer(s) the authoritative 'arpa' name servers
   might give for that query.  The 'ipv4only.arpa' query is being used
   purely as a local client-to-middlebox communication message.

   This approach is even more attractive if it does not create an
   additional dependency on the authoritative 'arpa' name servers to
   answer a query that is unnecessary because the NAT64/DNS64 gateway
   already knows the answer before it even issues the query.  Avoiding
   this unnecessary query improves performance and reliability for the
   client, and reduces unnecessary load for the authoritative 'arpa'
   name servers.

   Hard-coding the known answers for 'ipv4only.arpa' IPv4 address record
   queries (DNS qtype "A") in recursive resolvers also reduces the risk
   of malicious devices intercepting those queries and returning
   incorrect answers.  Because the 'ipv4only.arpa' zone has to be an

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                  [Page 7]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

   insecure delegation (see below) DNSSEC cannot be used to protect
   these answers from tampering by malicious devices on the path.

   With respect to the question of whether 'ipv4only.arpa' should be a
   secure or insecure delegation, we need to consider two paths of
   information flow through the network: The path from the authoritative
   server to the DNS64 recursive resolver, and the path from the DNS64
   recursive resolver to the ultimate client.  On either or both of
   these paths there may be one or more DNS64-unaware recursive
   resolvers.

   The path from the authoritative server to the DNS64 recursive
   resolver (queries for IPv4 address records) need not be protected by
   DNSSEC, because the DNS64 recursive resolver already knows, by
   specification, what the answers are.  In principle, if this were a
   secure delegation, and 'ipv4only.arpa' were a signed zone, then the
   path from the authoritative server to the DNS64 recursive resolver
   would still work, but DNSSEC is not necessary here.  Run-time
   cryptographic signatures are not needed to verify compile-time
   constants.

   The path from the DNS64 recursive resolver to the ultimate client
   (queries for IPv6 address records) *cannot* be protected by DNSSEC,
   because the DNS64 recursive resolver is synthesizing IPv6 address
   answers, and does not possess the secret key required to sign those
   answers.

   Consequently, the 'ipv4only.arpa' zone MUST be an insecure
   delegation, to give NAT64/DNS64 gateways the freedom to synthesize
   answers to those queries at will, without the answers being rejected
   by DNSSEC-capable resolvers.  DNSSEC-capable resolvers that follow
   this specification MUST NOT attempt to validate answers received in
   response to queries for the IPv6 AAAA address records for
   'ipv4only.arpa'.

   The original NAT64 Prefix Discovery specification [RFC7050] stated,
   incorrectly:

      A signed "ipv4only.arpa." allows validating DNS64 servers
      (see [RFC6147] Section 3, Case 5, for example) to detect
      malicious AAAA resource records.  Therefore, the zone
      serving the well-known name has to be protected with DNSSEC.

   This document updates the previous specification [RFC7050] to correct
   that error.  The 'ipv4only.arpa' zone MUST be an insecure delegation.

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                  [Page 8]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

7.  IANA Considerations

   [Once published] IANA has recorded the following names in the
   Special-Use Domain Names registry [SUDN]:

      ipv4only.arpa.
      170.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa.
      171.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa.

   IANA has recorded the following IPv4 addresses in the
   IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry [SUv4]:

      192.0.0.170
      192.0.0.171

8.  Domain Name Reservation Considerations

8.1.  Special Use Domain Name 'ipv4only.arpa'

   The name 'ipv4only.arpa' is defined, by Internet Standard, to have
   two IPv4 address records with rdata 192.0.0.170 and 192.0.0.171.

   When queried via a DNS64 [RFC6147] recursive resolver, the name
   'ipv4only.arpa' is also defined to have IPv6 AAAA records, with rdata
   synthesized from a combination of the NAT64 IPv6 prefix(es) and the
   IPv4 addresses 192.0.0.170 and 192.0.0.171.  This can return more
   than one pair of IPv6 addresses if there are multiple NAT64 prefixes.

   The name 'ipv4only.arpa' has no other IPv4 or IPv6 address records.
   There are no subdomains of 'ipv4only.arpa'.  All names falling below
   'ipv4only.arpa' are defined to be nonexistent (NXDOMAIN).

   The name 'ipv4only.arpa' is special to
   (a) client software wishing to perform DNS64 address synthesis,
   (b) APIs responsible for retrieving the correct information, and
   (c) the DNS64 recursive resolver responding to such requests.
   These three considerations are listed in items 2, 3 and 4 below:

   1.  Normal users should never have reason to encounter the
       'ipv4only.arpa' domain name.  If they do, they should expect
       queries for 'ipv4only.arpa' to result in the answers required by
       the specification [RFC7050].  Normal users have no need to know
       that 'ipv4only.arpa' is special.

   2.  Application software may explicitly use the name 'ipv4only.arpa'
       for NAT64/DNS64 address synthesis, and expect to get the answers
       required by the specification [RFC7050].  If application software
       encounters the name 'ipv4only.arpa' in the normal course of

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                  [Page 9]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

       handling user input, the application software should resolve that
       name as usual and need not treat it in any special way.

   3.  Name resolution APIs and libraries MUST recognize 'ipv4only.arpa'
       as special and MUST give it special treatment.

       Learning a network's NAT64 prefix is by its nature an interface-
       specific operation, and the special DNS query used to learn this
       interface-specific NAT64 prefix MUST be sent to the DNS recursive
       resolver address(es) the client learned via the configuration
       machinery for that specific client interface.  One implication of
       this is that, on any host with multiple physical interfaces
       (e.g., cellular data and Wi-Fi) and/or multiple virtual
       interfaces (e.g., VPN tunnels), for a client to learn the NAT64
       prefix in use on a particular interface, the DNS name resolution
       APIs used to look up the IPv6 addresses for 'ipv4only.arpa' MUST
       include a parameter for the client to specify on which interface
       to perform this query.  The NAT64 prefix is a per-interface
       property, not a per-device property.

       Regardless of any manual client DNS configuration, DNS overrides
       configured by VPN client software, or any other mechanisms that
       influence the choice of the client's recursive resolver
       address(es) (including client devices that run their own local
       recursive resolver and use the loopback address as their
       configured recursive resolver address) all queries for
       'ipv4only.arpa' and any subdomains of that name MUST be sent to
       the recursive resolver learned from the network interface in
       question via IPv6 Router Advertisement Options for DNS
       Configuration [RFC8106] or via DNS Configuration options for
       DHCPv6 [RFC3646].  Because DNS queries for 'ipv4only.arpa' are
       actually a special middlebox communication protocol, it is
       essential that they go to the correct middlebox for the interface
       in question, and failure to honor this requirement would cause
       failure of the NAT64 Prefix Discovery mechanism [RFC7050].

       DNSSEC-capable resolvers MUST NOT attempt to validate answers
       received in response to queries for the IPv6 AAAA address records
       for 'ipv4only.arpa', since, by definition, any such answers are
       generated by the local network's NAT64/DNS64 gateway, not the
       authoritative server responsible for that name.

   4.  For the purposes of this section, recursive resolvers fall into
       two categories.  The first category is the traditional recursive
       resolvers that are in widespread use today.  The second category
       is DNS64 recursive resolvers, whose purpose is to synthesize IPv6
       address records.

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                 [Page 10]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

       Traditional recursive resolvers SHOULD NOT recognize
       'ipv4only.arpa' as special or give that name, or subdomains of
       that name, any special treatment.  The rationale for this is that
       a traditional recursive resolver, such as built in to a home
       gateway, may itself be downstream of a DNS64 recursive resolver.
       Passing through the 'ipv4only.arpa' queries to the upstream DNS64
       recursive resolver will allow the correct NAT64 prefix to be
       discovered.

       All DNS64 recursive resolvers MUST recognize 'ipv4only.arpa' as
       special and MUST NOT attempt to look up NS records for it, or
       otherwise query authoritative name servers in an attempt to
       resolve this name.  Instead, DNS64 recursive resolvers MUST act
       as authoritative for this domain and generate immediate responses
       for all such queries.

       DNS64 recursive resolvers MUST generate the 192.0.0.170 and
       192.0.0.171 responses for IPv4 address queries (DNS qtype "A"),
       the appropriate synthesized IPv6 address record responses for
       IPv6 address queries (DNS qtype "AAAA"), and a negative
       ("no error no answer") response for all other query types.

       For all subdomains of 'ipv4only.arpa', DNS64 recursive resolvers
       MUST generate immediate NXDOMAIN responses.  All names falling
       below 'ipv4only.arpa' are defined to be nonexistent.

       An example configuration for BIND 9 showing how to achieve the
       desired result is given in Appendix A.

       Note that this is *not* a locally served zone in the usual sense
       of that term [RFC6303] because this rule applies *only* to DNS64
       recursive resolvers, not *all* DNS recursive resolvers.

   5.  Traditional authoritative name server software need not recognize
       'ipv4only.arpa' as special or handle it in any special way.
       Recursive resolvers SHOULD routinely act as authoritative for
       this name and return the results described above.  Only the
       administrators of the 'arpa' namespace need to explicitly
       configure their actual authoritative name servers to be
       authoritative for this name and to generate the appropriate
       answers; all other authoritative name servers will not be
       configured to know anything about this name and will reject
       queries for it, as they would reject queries for any other name
       about which they have no information.

   6.  Generally speaking, operators of authoritative name servers need
       not know anything about the name 'ipv4only.arpa', just as they do
       not need to know anything about any other names they are not

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                 [Page 11]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

       responsible for.  Operators of authoritative name servers who are
       configuring their name servers to be authoritative for this name
       MUST understand that 'ipv4only.arpa' is a special name, with
       records rigidly specified by Internet Standard (generally this
       applies only to the administrators of the 'arpa' namespace).

   7.  DNS Registries/Registrars need not know anything about the name
       'ipv4only.arpa', just as they do not need to know anything about
       any other name they are not responsible for.  Only the
       administrators of the 'arpa' namespace need to be aware of this
       name's purpose and how it should be configured.  In particular,
       'ipv4only.arpa' MUST be created as an insecure delegation, to
       allow DNS64 recursive resolvers to create synthesized AAAA
       answers within that zone.  Making the 'ipv4only.arpa' zone a
       secure delegation would make it impossible for DNS64 recursive
       resolvers to create synthesized AAAA answers that won't fail
       DNSSEC validation, thereby defeating the entire purpose of the
       'ipv4only.arpa' name.

8.2.  Names '170.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa' and '171.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa'

   Since the IPv4 addresses 192.0.0.170 and 192.0.0.171 are defined to
   be special, and are listed in the IPv4 Special-Purpose Address
   Registry [SUv4], the corresponding reverse mapping names in the
   in-addr.arpa domain are similarly special.

   The name '170.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa' is defined, by Internet Standard,
   to have only one DNS record, type PTR, with rdata 'ipv4only.arpa'.

   The name '171.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa' is defined, by Internet Standard,
   to have only one DNS record, type PTR, with rdata 'ipv4only.arpa'.

   There are no subdomains of '170.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa' or
   '171.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa'.  All names falling below these names are
   defined to be nonexistent (NXDOMAIN).

   Practically speaking these two names are rarely used, but to the
   extent that they may be, they are special only to resolver APIs and
   libraries, as described in item 3 below:

   1.  Normal users should never have reason to encounter these two
       reverse mapping names.  However, if they do, queries for these
       reverse mapping names should return the expected answer
       'ipv4only.arpa'.  Normal users have no need to know that these
       reverse mapping names are special.

   2.  Application software SHOULD NOT recognize these two reverse
       mapping names as special, and SHOULD NOT treat them differently.

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                 [Page 12]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

       For example, if the user were to issue the Unix command
       "host 192.0.0.170" then the "host" command should call the name
       resolution API or library as usual and display the result that is
       returned.

   3.  Name resolution APIs and libraries SHOULD recognize these two
       reverse mapping names as special and generate the required
       responses locally.  For the names '170.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa' and
       '171.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa' PTR queries yield the result
       'ipv4only.arpa'; all other query types yield a negative
       ("no error no answer") response.  For all subdomains of these two
       reverse mapping domains, all queries yield an NXDOMAIN response.
       All names falling below these two reverse mapping domains are
       defined to be nonexistent.

       This local self-contained generation of these responses is to
       avoid placing unnecessary load on the authoritative
       'in-addr.arpa' name servers.

   4.  Recursive resolvers SHOULD NOT recognize these two reverse
       mapping names as special and SHOULD NOT, by default, give them
       any special treatment.

   5.  Traditional authoritative name server software need not recognize
       these two reverse mapping names as special or handle them in any
       special way.

       As a practical matter, only the administrators of the
       '192.in-addr.arpa' namespace will configure their name servers to
       be authoritative for these names and to generate the appropriate
       answers; all other authoritative name servers will not be
       configured to know anything about these names and will reject
       queries for them as they would reject queries for any other name
       about which they have no information.

   6.  Generally speaking, operators of authoritative name servers need
       not know anything about these two reverse mapping names, just as
       they do not need to know anything about any other names they are
       not responsible for.  Operators of authoritative name servers who
       are configuring their name servers to be authoritative for this
       name MUST understand that these two reverse mapping names are
       special, with answers specified by Internet Standard (generally
       this applies only to the administrators of the '192.in-addr.arpa'
       namespace).

   7.  DNS Registries/Registrars need not know anything about these two
       reverse mapping names, just as they do not need to know anything
       about any other name they are not responsible for.  Only the

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                 [Page 13]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

       administrators of the '192.in-addr.arpa' namespace need to be
       aware of the purpose of these two names.

8.2.1.  ip6.arpa Reverse Mapping PTR Records

   For all IPv6 addresses synthesized by a DNS64 recursive resolver, the
   DNS64 recursive resolver is responsible for synthesizing the
   appropriate 'ip6.arpa' reverse mapping PTR records too, if it chooses
   to provide reverse mapping PTR records.  The same applies to the
   synthesized IPv6 addresses corresponding to the IPv4 addresses
   192.0.0.170 and 192.0.0.171.

   Generally a DNS64 recursive resolver synthesizes appropriate
   'ip6.arpa' reverse mapping PTR records by extracting the embedded
   IPv4 address from the encoded IPv6 address, performing a reverse
   mapping PTR query for that IPv4 address, and then synthesizing a
   corresponding 'ip6.arpa' reverse mapping PTR record containing the
   same rdata.

   In the case of synthesized IPv6 addresses corresponding to the IPv4
   addresses 192.0.0.170 and 192.0.0.171, the DNS64 recursive resolver
   does not issue reverse mapping queries for those IPv4 addresses, but
   instead, according to rule 3 above, immediately returns the answer
   'ipv4only.arpa'.

   In the case of a client that uses the 'ipv4only.arpa' query to
   discover the IPv6 prefixes in use by the local NAT64 gateway, and
   then proceeds to perform its own address synthesis locally (which has
   benefits such as allowing DNSSEC validation), that client MUST also
   synthesize 'ip6.arpa' reverse mapping PTR records for those
   discovered prefix(es), according to the rules above: When a client's
   name resolution APIs and libraries receive a request to look up an
   'ip6.arpa' reverse mapping PTR record for an address that falls
   within one of the discovered NAT64 address synthesis prefixes, the
   software extracts the embedded IPv4 address and then, for IPv4
   addresses 192.0.0.170 and 192.0.0.171, returns the fixed answer
   'ipv4only.arpa', and for all other IPv4 addresses performs a reverse
   mapping PTR query for the IPv4 address, and then synthesizes a
   corresponding 'ip6.arpa' reverse mapping PTR record containing the
   same rdata.

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                 [Page 14]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

9.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to Jouni Korhonen, Teemu Savolainen, and Dan Wing, for
   devising the NAT64 Prefix Discovery mechanism [RFC7050], and for
   their feedback on this document.

   Thanks to Geoff Huston for his feedback on this document.

   Thanks to Erik Kline for pointing out that the in-addr.arpa names are
   special too.

   Thanks to Mark Andrews for pointing out the reasons why the
   'ipv4only.arpa' zone MUST be an insecure delegation in order for the
   NAT64 Prefix Discovery mechanism [RFC7050] to work.

   Thanks particularly to Lorenzo Colitti for an especially spirited
   hallway discussion at IETF 96 in Berlin, which lead directly to
   significant improvements in how this document presents the issues.

   Thanks to Dave Thaler and Warren Kumari for generously helping
   shepherd this document through the publication process.

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC3646]  Droms, R., Ed., "DNS Configuration options for Dynamic
              Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 3646,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC3646, December 2003, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc3646>.

   [RFC6146]  Bagnulo, M., Matthews, P., and I. van Beijnum, "Stateful
              NAT64: Network Address and Protocol Translation from IPv6
              Clients to IPv4 Servers", RFC 6146, DOI 10.17487/RFC6146,
              April 2011, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6146>.

   [RFC6147]  Bagnulo, M., Sullivan, A., Matthews, P., and I. van
              Beijnum, "DNS64: DNS Extensions for Network Address
              Translation from IPv6 Clients to IPv4 Servers", RFC 6147,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6147, April 2011, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc6147>.

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                 [Page 15]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

   [RFC6761]  Cheshire, S. and M. Krochmal, "Special-Use Domain Names",
              RFC 6761, DOI 10.17487/RFC6761, February 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6761>.

   [RFC7050]  Savolainen, T., Korhonen, J., and D. Wing, "Discovery of
              the IPv6 Prefix Used for IPv6 Address Synthesis",
              RFC 7050, DOI 10.17487/RFC7050, November 2013,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7050>.

   [RFC8106]  Jeong, J., Park, S., Beloeil, L., and S. Madanapalli,
              "IPv6 Router Advertisement Options for DNS Configuration",
              RFC 8106, DOI 10.17487/RFC8106, March 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8106>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

10.2.  Informative References

   [RFC6303]  Andrews, M., "Locally Served DNS Zones", BCP 163,
              RFC 6303, DOI 10.17487/RFC6303, July 2011,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6303>.

   [RFC8244]  Lemon, T., Droms, R., and W. Kumari, "Special-Use Domain
              Names Problem Statement", RFC 8244, DOI 10.17487/RFC8244,
              October 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8244>.

   [SUDN]     "Special-Use Domain Names Registry",
              <https://www.iana.org/assignments/special-use-domain-
              names/>.

   [SUv4]     "IANA IPv4 Special-Purpose Address Registry",
              <https://www.iana.org/assignments/iana-ipv4-special-
              registry/>.

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                 [Page 16]
Internet-Draft         Special Name ipv4only.arpa          November 2018

Appendix A.  Example BIND 9 Configuration

   A BIND 9 recursive resolver can be configured to act as authoritative
   for the necessary DNS64 names as described below.

   In /etc/named.conf the following line is added:

      zone "ipv4only.arpa"            { type master; file "ipv4only"; };

   The file /var/named/ipv4only is created with the following content:

      $TTL 86400               ; Default TTL 24 hours
      @ IN SOA nameserver.example. admin.nameserver.example. (
               2016052400      ; Serial
               7200            ; Refresh ( 7200 = 2 hours)
               3600            ; Retry   ( 3600 = 1 hour)
               15724800        ; Expire  (15724800 = 6 months)
               60              ; Minimum
               )
      @ IN NS  nameserver.example.

      @ IN A    192.0.0.170
      @ IN A    192.0.0.171
      @ IN AAAA 64:ff9b::192.0.0.170 ; If not using Well-Known Prefix
      @ IN AAAA 64:ff9b::192.0.0.171 ; place chosen NAT64 prefix here

Authors' Addresses

   Stuart Cheshire
   Apple Inc.
   One Apple Park Way
   Cupertino, California  95014
   USA

   Phone: +1 (408) 996-1010
   Email: cheshire@apple.com

   David Schinazi
   Google LLC
   1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
   Mountain View, California  94043
   USA

   Email: dschinazi.ietf@gmail.com

Cheshire & Schinazi        Expires May 8, 2019                 [Page 17]